Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1887-04-07
A STIRRING APPEAL.
Address by the President of the Irish
National League Of America.
HEADQUARrERs IarsH NATIONAL LEAGUE J

LINCOLN, Neb, March 2G.
To the American public ana the Irishmen Of
America:
The corporation of Dublin, the metro
politan city of Ireland, has appealed to the
Christian world for the protests of human
ity against the further persecution OF the
Irish people by the British Government.
A time has come in the relations of Ireland
and England when the laws of God and
the dictates OF humanity become superior
to every rule of international etiquette, and
demand from the morality of the world a
stern denunciation OF the course about to
be pursued by the Tory Government
against the Irish. The voice of America
should not be silent when. additional
outrages are about to be inflicted on
q robbed and persecuted nation. Brit.
policy of justice to Ireland,
and condemn coercion by the Tory Gov
ernment as alike cruel and impolitic, did
not hesitate to denounce oppression by the
Turks in Bulgaria. Are the Irish less TO
America than the Bulgarians were to Eng
land, that America should hesitate to in
terfere in Ireland's behalf against the cru
elites of the British Government? The
Irish have exhausted every means of moral
and constitutional agitation to recover their
Just and legitimate social and political
rights. The voice of Scotland and of
Wales and of the mass Of the British
democracy has sanctioned the efforts of
Ireland, and proclaimed the justice of her
cause. Gladstone, Morley, Labouchere, and
every English leader worthy the name of
statesman have proclaimed themselves adj
yocates of Irefand's claim to legislative in
dependence. 1t is no longer the English
people who oppose the restoration of Ire
lands liberties, but the aristpcratic robbers
who have throttled alike both Britain and
Ireland, and have fattened for generations
on public plunder with the proceeds of
which they can use the lever of corruption
to lift them into power and maintain them
selves there. The cause of Ireland is the
cause of the British democracy, and to this
fact may we attribute the bitter and unre-
lenting opposition of the British Tories.
The Irish do not pretend 10 fight against
the English, but against the oppressors of
both. In this struggle the Irish have done
all morality can demand from an oppressed
nation, and now as q last effort they ask the
interference of the Christian world TO pre-
vent their destruction.
AS President of the Irish National
League of America, the representative
body of the Irish race on this continent, l
re-echo that appeal. / ask the American
press and people to pass their verdict on
the treatment now being meted out to the
Irish people by heartless and venom
blunted Tory Government. Let them say
boldly if the Irish have not displayed all
the forDearance that human nature is capa-
BILE of in their passive resistance to such
inhuman laws as the British Government
would force them to submit to. There is
no law, human or divine, that compels q
nation TO passively accept humiliation,
mif ta6
to heap additional wrongs on the Irish
people, despair will nerve the Irish to
very deer turn on their pursuers when
driven TO bay, and if nothing will satisfy
the British Government but the destruc-
ton of the Irish people, Ireland will
be justified before God and man in
selling her life at the heaviest price she
can obtain, and in using every weapon
the ingenuity of man can place within her
reach. / ask the justice or freedom loving
people of America to prevent this terrible
consummation of British crime and mis-
government. Let the condemnation of the
British Governments policy in Ireland ring
from every community on this continent.
/ ask the honest and fearless press of
America to sustain the efforts of Mr.. Par
nell and Mr.. Gladstone to inaugurate
policy of justice and liberty in opposition
peal most forcibly to the Irish race in
America to arouse themselves to immediate
action. In an especial manner / address
myself to those of our blood whom God has
blessed with abundance to come forward
and share in the burdens and sacrifices of
their people. No rank or power can justi-
fy any man ia refusing to identify himself
with the race to which he belongs, and the
man who thus shirks his duty deserves the
contempt of his fellow men.
With the fullest confidence in their
never failing fidelity to Ireland, call
again upon the masses Of the Irish race in
America to repeat the splendid generosity
they have SO often extended toward their
struggling brethren in Ireland. Mr.. Parnell
says the Immediate future will be q time of
suffering for the Irish people. With Gods
help the time will not be long; but, long or
short, no Irishman must perish for want of
Irish American support, and no Irish
American is 80 poor that by self-sacrifice
he cannot contribute his mite to the Irish
cause. / advise the officers of the League
to make redoubled efforts to increase its
membership. Every man of Irish blood in
the United States and Canada should be
enrolled in the League wherever it is pos
sible, and steps should be taken to reor-
ganize disbanded branches and establish
new ones. To those of our people liv-
ing on farms too remote from each
other to form branches of the league, will
say that the Rev. DIR. O'Reilly, Detroit,
Mich, will receive their subscriptions and
promptly acknowledge the same in the pub
lie press. They have every opportunity,
therefore, to share in Ireland's struggle,
and should lose no time in sending in their
name and such contributions as their means
will permit. In this crisis also earnestly
ask the assistance and support of the Irish
American press for the Irish Land League.
Let us have one grand effective organiza-
ton, with one heart and one voice pledged
to sustain Mr.. Parnell and his Irish associ-
ates with oil our strength and influence in
their efforts TO recover the legislative inde-
pendence of Ireland, aided by Mr.. Glad
stone and the British democracy, who strive
10 replace Tory oppression with the broad
principles of human liberty and inter-
national justice. Yours faithfully,
JOHN FITZGERALD,
President /. N. l.. A.